Make Sailplane Racing Great Again

Greg. Interesting article and most likely not the only one. It is a good model to follow. Thanks for pointing it out.

Sailplane racing and recreational flying is dying as we know it. To date, other attempts to revive it have had minimal success so what is the harm of trying a different avenue? What is the fear? It might succeed despite traditionalist's best efforts at keeping the sports comfortable for traditionalists. If this was the case think about TP cameras and how GPS allowed the sport to evolve. Without people willing to challenge the establishment sports stagnate and die.

Motorheads who have traditionally hopped up cars from the 50-70's didn't take motorheads who swap chips seriously. Look at the success of drifting. According to some, modern hot rodding isn't legit. Enough people have an interest in getting extra power from an engine and smoking tires that drifting is a multi million dollar sport. How many modern cars sport carbon muffler cans and aftermarket rear deck wings?

Using the E platform to bring any aviation into the public eye is great. We might not have great contests for a few years but we might.

Making contests great again might also be making the organizer's job more fun. I have worked the gate (I remember them fondly),retrieve desk, and as an official for an international contest and have real world experience with what a thankless job it is. I've also been crew which is a ton of work.

Maybe we, pilots, make contests fun for those who run them and they will work to make it fun for the pilots. Contest pilots might be going about this backwards. Make contests fun for everyone. This has been mentioned in prior replies and I wholeheartedly agree. Why not have trailer backing contests and some sort of fun glider related tasks for crew members? Pilot was DFL for the contest but the crew took home the trophy. Stuff for them to do at the airport besides wait around for a phone to ring. Those days were good for the team but kinda sucked as crew. Retrieves were always an adventure and I remember many more good retrieve stories then flight stories.

When flying contests, I always flew better when the rest of my team was having a good time.

Contests with a great reputation had something special about them. Good feeds; interesting destinations; stuff for crews to do when the flying was going on; stuff to do when the wx was garbage and it was a no fly day. The Seniors take a day off so the pilots can dote on the crew. Great idea.

The flying part of contests is driven by the weather which is out of our control. What can we control to make a contest great?

On Tuesday, March 7, 2017 at 8:43:08 PM UTC-5, Kevin Brooker wrote:

Sailplane racing and recreational flying is dying as we know it.

Get the log out of your own eye.

-Evan Ludeman

....and the chicks, Mark. Don't forget the chicks!

On 3/7/2017 12:25 PM, wrote:
I am sure that all of you who advocate "making gliders available" to these upcoming e-pilots are talking about donating your own personal aircraft, and not assuming that someone else is doing so. Put up or shut up.

Only one post on this thread even mentioned the organizers. They are the ones who bear the brunt and take the blame when a contest does not live up to the standards of the exalted few. Of course, they do it for the money, which must be all of about two bucks after the thing is over.


--
Dan, 5J

Bring racing numbers back? Simple.

Just go resurrect Charlie Spratt.

FWIW,

I do enjoy racing and want to see sailplane racing gain popularity in the US. I enjoy the challenge of utilizing the same course and weather to measure speed and performance. I like to think that one day I will be fast enough to qualify for a spot on a world team. (Dream Big!)

This in mind, I will not likely be able to race for many years. Some of the reasons to follow:
1) A National Contest is 10 days in length, plus travel time to and from the contest. I currently get 7 days off per year and will eventually build up to 10 days per year.
2) My wife is my biggest supporter and loves to see me fly. Contests are boring for her, and the contest locations are typically lackluster. She does not see a soaring contest as a vacation thus she does not want to go with me. Additionally she understandably does not want me to spend my vacation days on a soaring contest only.

So for me, the decision to not compete is limited by time and location primarily. I want to compete, but the feasibility is non-existent, thus I will probably be an OLC warrior for a few years. I like the encouragement to increase participation, however I tend to understand why the racing demographics tend to involve more people who are senior in their careers and less between 20 and 40 years old. Quite possibly why junior member participation levels are quite low too.

In my perfect world, there would be two nationals each year for each class. (West and East) the Nationals would be 6 days long (Monday to Saturday) with room to travel on a weekend on each end. Locations would be selected based on optimal positioning for 1 day travel to and from each venue. This would be more feasible for attracting larger crowds to the National Contests, but I fear it looks too much like a regional. Maybe regionals should be 3 days long, over a weekend?

7 days annual holiday! That's appalling, you need to change
jobs or emigrate.
Is this normal for America?
Dave Walsh

Le samedi 4 mars 2017 11:17:12 UTC-5, a écritÂ*:
You will only improve if you are honest with yourself and admit your weaknesses. A chain is only as strong as its weakest link. A tow rope looses 50% of its strength with a knot it in.

For those who have tasted flight, their eyes will be forever turned skyward. And for those who have tasted the excitement of racing alongside another sailplane, they will forever want to compete. Sailplane racing is a sport in which a 16 year old can compete against an 86 year old. It is the most pure form of aviation that exists. Hot air ballooning, helicopters, power aircraft to gyrocopters, can quickly reach a state where you feel you have mastered that craft. With Soaring, it takes a lifetime, an endless pursuit of winning a challeng that is always changing with the winds.

What are, in your opinion, the weakest links to sailplane racing?

My opinion is that the complexities of the game have become too overwhelming it takes the fun away.

Back in the old days, it was as simple as who can fly the furthest downwind. That's simple to understand.

Technology, spot tracking, no more cameras at the points have changed our sport, but is it really for the better? Are we embracing these technological advancements to rise our sport or has it been used to demise our sport?

More than often in the past decade have we seen dismal turnouts for classes. 12 pilots for the standard class national championship showed up! That's pathetic!

It makes me wonder, does the SSA leadership want a sold out contest? Or do they want a small turnout to reduce the competition they face? Actions speak louder than words! Or is it that this has become a good old boys club and we want to keep it small like a gentlemens hunting club.

It's shocking that a pilot can get a rating, buy a glider and finish last place in a regional contest and then with minimal qualifications qualify for a National Contest!

This alone clearly shows that what has been done to keep the sport the same size, or increase its participation levels has been a failure.

Sailplane racing was never great. With twice the membership you had twice the number of racing participant.
Gilles, starting my 49th season.

Andy's well-written and thoughtful response is an example of what RAS is supposed to be. Unfortunately, input like this has become very rare- overtaken by rants and snide comments as the thread drifts into oblivion. Thanks, Andy!

Q-"What are, in your opinion, the weakest links to sailplane racing?"
A- Poor instructor experience level nationally, and poor fleet nationally speaking.

Soaring is not fostered by the clubs in the US, gliding is. If you can't soar, you can't race. A newly minted pilot must choose between a 20-100k investment and teach themselves to fly X/C or earn an instructor certificate and spend the rest of their days in the back of a 2-33. (this is why membership is down.) The self starters who spend their money to buy a private ship care little about fostering a fledgling pilot unless they want to buy a glider and try to keep up. The whole system is out of wack. Clubs that won't invest in high performance equipment and advanced instruction miss the opportunity to sustain membership and improve the sport. The instructor group refuses to acknowledge the problem because it exposes their inexperience in x/c and time in high performance a/c. They have no desire to invest money out of pocket as club members in the higher performance a/c or the financial investment required of themselves to become x/c proficient.
Take a look at the JR. program in the UK. Do you think they expect those kids to buy their own gliders and figure it out themselves? No, they have real instructors and real sailplanes. If you have a large number of x/c proficient pilots with a bunch of high performance gliders laying around the racing part will take care of itself.

-Doug

Big bucket of truth right there
On Thursday, March 9, 2017 at 12:22:20 AM UTC-5, wrote:
Q-"What are, in your opinion, the weakest links to sailplane racing?"
A- Poor instructor experience level nationally, and poor fleet nationally speaking.

Soaring is not fostered by the clubs in the US, gliding is. If you can't soar, you can't race. A newly minted pilot must choose between a 20-100k investment and teach themselves to fly X/C or earn an instructor certificate and spend the rest of their days in the back of a 2-33. (this is why membership is down.) The self starters who spend their money to buy a private ship care little about fostering a fledgling pilot unless they want to buy a glider and try to keep up. The whole system is out of wack. Clubs that won't invest in high performance equipment and advanced instruction miss the opportunity to sustain membership and improve the sport. The instructor group refuses to acknowledge the problem because it exposes their inexperience in x/c and time in high performance a/c. They have no desire to invest money out of pocket as club members in the higher performance a/c or the financial investment required of themselves to become x/c proficient.
Take a look at the JR. program in the UK. Do you think they expect those kids to buy their own gliders and figure it out themselves? No, they have real instructors and real sailplanes. If you have a large number of x/c proficient pilots with a bunch of high performance gliders laying around the racing part will take care of itself.

-Doug